For the last eight years, pedestrians crossing Esther Street in Orlando, Florida would step across a rainbow crosswalk, a memorial to the 49 people who lost their lives in the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay night club in the city. At the time, Pulse was the deadliest shooting in American history, a brutal hate crime that shattered the LGBTQ+ community, as a place of sanctuary became one of tragedy. One year later came the creation of the rainbow striped crosswalk, serving as a symbol of remembrance and LGBTQ+ resilience. However, now all that Floridians will see as they cross Esther Street is a crosswalk painted in militaristic black and white stripes, indistinguishable from any other intersection. This removal occurred on August 21, when, in the dead of the night, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) painted over the Pulse shooting memorial, even though the state had previously approved its creation. In a state infamous for its “Don’t Say Gay” law, the sudden erasure of the crosswalk suggests that this was meant as another targeted attack against Florida’s LGBTQ+ community. However, this war on crosswalks extends to all of Florida’s residents, because what’s really at stake is not art or LGBTQ+ rights, but public health and safety.
Grassroots Safety Measures Removed
What happened in Orlando was just the beginning. Throughout the state of Florida, artwork in the streets and crosswalks of Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and more have been painted over in the same stark black. In these cities, not only have pride flags been targeted but also now gone are a mural designed by elementary schoolers depicting a library, paw prints near the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium, and ironically even a “Back the Blue” pro-police mural. Beyond their removal, what each of these crosswalks and street murals shared was that they were the birth of community initiative. At either the city or neighborhood level, designs were created and chosen by local artists with community input, ensuring the art reflected the pride and identity of the community where it appeared. Funding came from individual donors, local nonprofits, small businesses, or municipal arts programs.
While the art’s charm and symbolism are a plus, the motive behind most of these street mural projects was to seek a community-based, grassroots solution to the burgeoning issue of traffic safety. Florida has one of the nation’s highest rates of pedestrian fatalities, and there is a wealth of research proving that having street art reduces crashes and encourages safer driving habits. The theory supporting this phenomenon hypothesizes that adding color and patterns to otherwise unassuming crosswalks and intersections enhances drivers’ visual awareness, causing them to slow down and practice safer driving behavior. For example, a study commissioned by Bloomberg Philanthropies in April 2022 found that roadways with asphalt art projects saw a 17 percent decrease in the total crash rate, a 27 percent increase in frequency of drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians, and a 38 percent decrease in pedestrians crossing against the walk signal.
“Street Art Saves Lives” a neighborhood proclaims, after their art was painted over | Image Source: Florida Resident, Emily Hinsdale
Governor Desantis’ Manufactured Legal Backing
Following the untimely removal of the Pulse night club memorial, Florida Governor Ron Desantis was quick to support his Transportation Department’s action with praise, framing it as an enforcement of political neutrality and leaning on a unique interpretation of Florida Senate Bill 1622 to legally justify the crosswalk’s removal. The language of the bill initially framed itself as nothing more than a standard, procedural update to the state’s traffic law, something so harmless on the surface that all Florida Democrats voted in favor of it. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, when describing SB 1622, former Republican State Senator (now Lieutenant Governor) Jay Collins, the bill’s sponsor, said it would simply ensure “a uniform transportation system that adheres to statewide requirements.” What the law requires is that all localities must abide with the traffic safety standards FDOT sets in place, and any localities found in violation of these standards risk being stripped of state funding.
However, the true intention of the supposedly “harmless” law emerged when only 11 days after Governor Desantis’ signing of the bill, FDOT updated their standards to declare that no “pavement surface art that is to be associated with social, political, or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control” was to be allowed in Florida’s streets. Thus, the removal of the Pulse memorial and every mural and crosswalk was given the legal backing and enforcement power it needed. In doing so, the state not only silenced and disrespected the communities that brought these crosswalk murals into existence, but it ignored a clear safety imperative that is driven by data. With the new additions of SB 1622, cities were given no choice: comply or lose vital state funding.
The Myth of Political Neutrality
In response to citizens’ complaints that their once colorful, vibrant streets are now painted over in black, Governor Desantis and FDOT have claimed that this was nothing more than a politically “neutral” enforcement of policy. Yet, their argument is perplexing. True to their word, DeSantis and FDOT have enforced their new standard all across the board, painting over a “Back the Blue” street mural, alongside rainbow crosswalks, a supposed assurance that the state does not directly endorse one political ideology over the other. However, coining the policy as politically neutral is misleading, as stripping the power from local governments to decide what images and symbols can be displayed in their communities, while simultaneously concentrating the control of creative expression in the hands of the state, is itself an inherently political act. The state amasses increased political power, while local governments are stripped of their autonomy. Governor DeSantis and FDOT’s ultimate goal in this crosswalk war appears to be assuming control over all public messaging in the state, ensuring that no LGBTQ+ symbols or other imagery that strays from their conservative ideology is displayed, the loss of a “Back the Blue” mural and children’s artwork acting as a necessary sacrifice in the process.
The Politicization Of Public Health
The war Governor DeSantis and FDOT have declared on crosswalks exemplifies a growing trend: politics are increasingly being used to manipulate and redefine standards of safety, leaving Floridians vulnerable. As the black paint was still drying in Florida’s streets, Governor Desantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo appeared together in a press conference to declare an end to all vaccine mandates in Florida. While their sweeping declaration was slightly backtracked following backlash from both sides of the aisle, “anti-vax” rhetoric has been continuously echoed by conservative leaders at the state for the last several years and more recently at the national level by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. The result had been a correlating decline in the rate of childhood vaccinations in Florida, a condition that raises concerns of potential outbreaks. While Florida’s anti-street art and anti-vax campaigns may, for now, serve as a test case for how far citizens will allow public health infrastructure to erode, recent developments in Idaho suggest this movement could quickly go national, or at least spread among red states. As of July, Idaho’s Medical Freedom Act went into effect across the state, banning the majority of medical mandates by business, governments, and schools from requiring vaccinations.
Top-Down Approval with Bottom-Up Consequences
With Idaho and Florida following suit of each other, a pattern emerges. Emboldened by a supportive federal government whose influence seems poised to endure well beyond 2028, the governments of red states will continue to sacrifice the safety of their citizens to score approval points and ride the coattails of President Trump and his followers. Florida’s attack on the crosswalks did not go unnoticed from the federal government. Prior to the Pulse controversy U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a directive to all 50 state governors stating, “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks… Political banners have no place on public roads. I’m reminding recipients of [USDOT] roadway funding that it’s limited to features advancing safety, and nothing else.”
With the suggestion that others follow his playbook, it is clear Governor Desantis and his Department of Transportation have won approval for their new policy from the top-down, but it remains to be seen if they will be able to hold on to approval from the bottom-up. The erasure of street art in Florida has given Governor Desantis the control over public narrative and messaging he needs to hold on to the praises of President Trump, but it is at the great cost of Floridians’ safety and their trust in the government to act in their best interest. As Floridians drive and walk across the streets that once displayed colorful memorials to their neighbors and symbols of their community pride, they will now only be met with increased safety risks at the same intersections that were once made safer by those designs. The oppressive black and white paint that remains will serve as an inescapable reminder of the authoritarian forces responsible.
Featured Image Source: Tampa Bay Times